Tag: travel

Spent the last couple days out of my hometown while visiting family. It was pleasant to unplug and unwind while enjoying the company of my parents. Didn’t get much done on this trip other than unwind and touch base with family. I was needing at least a couple days of different surroundings. I visited my family at the acreage. It was good to be back around nature and less rush. While I am a self admitted city slicker even though I grew up in a rural area, it was still fun to be outside again for a couple hours at a time without being paranoid of being watched by nosy neighbors.

I sometimes get paranoid around even individual people nearby, especially when I want to be alone. When I was in college, I used to take my trash to a dumpster on the other side of town because I was afraid that people where going through my trash. I used to be afraid that neighbors and even family were listening in on my conversations. But the real paranoia I am working against now is that I fear that I am losing favor with my neighbors and fellow tenants in my complex. I may not be the greatest tenant in my complex, but I still try hard to be friendly with people and just avoid arguments as much as possible. Fortunately in my over ten years at my current address, I have had real arguments with only three tenants that I can think of right off hand. Fortunately those cleared up really quick and the problems were resolved shortly afterwards.

Paranoia is indeed strange. I know in the reasonable part of my mind that my paranoias aren’t real and that I’m essentially worrying over nothing that can’t be easily resolved. But, the irrational part of my mind keeps replaying these paranoid thoughts on an endless loop. Drowning out the paranoid thinking process with positive news that is actually happening helps. Positive thoughts help, especially if they can be shown to be true. That’s why I spend a lot of time researching science advances and medical news. Yet, even then, occasionally the paranoia gets the better of my reasonable side. The problems I had over the last few days, fortunately, tend to get more rare and even less intense than even a few years ago. I was happy that I was able to go through this last round of problems without yelling and acting out. I’ve notice the breakdowns I do have anymore don’t seem to be as intense. I hope I have gotten better with letting off a little at a time rather than holding it in for a major meltdown.

I was more depressed and weary than angry and irritated these last few days. I guess that depression and weariness are becoming stronger than irritation and anger at this stage in my life. I’m glad that it takes more to anger me than in years past. I no longer avoid driving because of fears of going into road rage; I avoid driving now partly because I find it kind of boring and I don’t like being on the lookout for people who just aren’t paying as much attention to the road as they should. It doesn’t make me angry, but it does make me think ‘how bad do I really want to go out tonight when I can still contact friends from home.’ I used to love to travel. But I don’t enjoy the travel as much now. I enjoy the company of friends and family more now.

Blogging has turned into a dream come true for me. I can write about my problems as a mentally ill man, tell what works for me and what doesn’t, and now I’m even making a few dollars a month at it. I never expected any money from this blog or really any of my writing work. I enjoy what money can do as much as anyone, but I really don’t need a large bank account or stock portfolio to stroke my ego. As long as I can keep the rent current, have food in my pantry, my medications stocked up, and stay out of debt, I am fine with what I make just off disability pension. It may seem kinda boring and dreary life for some as I really can’t afford to travel much anymore or that I don’t have any family of my own.

I travelled a lot in my younger years and I went to a small college with a larger than usual foreign student body. Since there were less than 600 students in our entire college, we were forced to interact with people of many different backgrounds if we wanted to have any kind of social life. It was a good college for someone like from rural Nebraska who wasn’t personally exposed to many different cultures. It was in college that I found that I had some talent for writing. That’s where I started writing poetry and drafts for novels. I also read many of the classics of American and European literature while there. I also dabbled in some Eastern philosophy like Sun Tzu and Lao Tzu. Granted this was in the early 2000s before youtube and most of social media really connnected people. I imagine I could learn the same things now on my computer as opposed to spending entire days in the campus library. But being exposed to different ideas from different eras of time and different nations inspired me to tell my own story. And apparantly my story of my life with mental illness is resonating with some people.

Today was the first day in weeks we had warm weather. I had to get outside to enjoy it. This has been a tougher than usual winter. I spent a lot of time indoors and hibernating because of the bad cold spells and snow storms. Now that it’s almost March I can see the beginning of the end of winter. And I am not sorry at all to see winter on it’s way out.

Been spending too much time indoors and isolating. There were times I would go entire days without leaving my apartment. With as bad as the weather was, it seemed pointless to just wander the halls. There were days I would sleep sometimes as much as twelve hours a day just out of boredom. Unfortunately I didn’t get as much reading done as I would have liked this winter. And I was lazy about writing for the last few weeks. While I have been stable mentally this winter, this was probably because I wasn’t doing much to invite troubles. I lost some of my social contacts from isolating and staying home so much this winter. Hopefully I can get those reestablished soon.

I still hear from old friends and family a couple times a week. Not as often as I would like, but I get that most people don’t have as much free time as I do. Mental illness essentially sent me into early retirement right about when my friends’ careers were taking off. Most of my friends now are married and have kids. I have as much freedom as anyone I know and yet I don’t get to share it very often. It’s a shame that most of my best friends from the past live out of state. I do have online friends from my discussion groups, but many of them live in other countries. I’ll probably never get to meet them in person even though I have far more in common with these friends than I do most people in my own hometown.

I would love to travel more but I absolutely can’t stand driving anymore. And flying airlines anymore is about as enjoyable as going to the dentist for root canal work. I have friends scattered to the four winds I haven’t seen since college graduation that I would give almost anything to see even for a few days. Since some of the old friends live in foreign countries I’d have to get a passport. I don’t know what Social Security’s rules are for disabled people traveling overseas and collecting disability pension. But I guess those dreams of travel and seeing old friends will stay in the realm of pipe dreams probably forever. I’ll just have to do the next best thing and socialize online I suppose.

My back has healed up. I’m back to essentially a more normal routine. Because of the colder weather and being housebound for two weeks, I got to do some thinking about changing things in my life. I have essentially been in a rut for the last couple years where it’s pretty much the same old every day, day in and day out. I haven’t done any real traveling for almost three years, spending much of my time self educating via youtube and Khan Academy and reading books. I gained back the weight I lost within two years of my car accident back in 2015. Now I’m getting more serious about my health again. I don’t eat fast food anymore. I’m starting to get out of my apartment more and walk a little every day. I do arm weights three times a week. And about the only things I drink anymore are water and coffee. I feel like I’m beginning to see some results. I started this new routine shortly after New Year’s. Because my back slowed me down for two weeks, I just cut back on what I ate. I’m to where I now eat meat only once a day, usually for breakfast. The rest of the meals I eat things like spinach leaf salads, soups, peanut butter, and meatless pasta. I think my routines are starting to work. I feel like I have more energy. I feel more mobile. I’m starting to have fewer aches and pains. And I am sleeping better too.

I’m also thinking that after I have lost some weight, I’m going to have to get out and about more. I am in desperate need of shaking up my routines and adding more spice to my life. A few years ago I said that I would like to do some traveling eventually. I still have my savings that I built up a few years ago. I’m thinking I’m going to have to see my old college friends again. I don’t have a definite time line set just yet as this is still in the dreaming before making plans phase. I have always wanted to get my passport and travel through Europe and see places like Barcelona, Paris, Berlin, London, etc. Part of me would, if I get back to the same weight I was in college, love to travel on some of the old Silk Road from eastern Europe to China or vice versa. When I was in high school I spent a couple weeks in Mexico with my Spanish class. It was the most enjoyable vacation I had in my entire life. Now that I am an adult, debt free, committed to getting back into good physical health, and have a little bit of a savings, I’m going to have to do this traveling before I get too old to enjoy it. Since I am single, have a safety net in my disability pension, and I can do my blog from anywhere that has WiFi internet, I’m starting to hear the faint beckoning call of the open road again.

When I was in my twenties and early thirties, I did a little traveling every year. My senior year of college, my parents and I went to San Antonio for Christmas. I got to see The Riverwalk lit up for Christmas, visited the Alamo, got to see one of the Air Force bases my dad was stationed at during the Vietnam War, and got to see my Nebraska Huskers play a post season bowl game. And an old college friend and I used to go to Denver to see Colorado Rockies baseball games, one of those games being a World Series game. Spent all winter paying off the cost of that quick weekend trip, and even though the Rockies lost the Series, it was worth the trip. I visited an old college friend in Minnesota for a week several summers ago. I was amazed at how beautiful Minnesota is (I wouldn’t care to fight their winters). My friends and I used to go to minor league baseball games every summer. We were able to get front row seats, a couple hot dogs, and a couple soda pops for less than $25 a person. Just thinking about these old times while I was house bound for the last two weeks got me to realize just how much I missed travel and seeing different places.

I know that before I can fulfill these dreams of traveling, I have to lose some weight. I have done it before. And by God I can do it again. I know it’s going to take at least a few years before I can get to doing the travel overseas like I dream of doing. But I have pretty much gotten to where I have played all the computer games and done most of the self study I care to do. I took a couple years doing that and I have gotten it out of my system. Now it is time for a different chapter in my life. It’s time to lose some weight and prepare to hit the road again.

My life has been essentially quiet and uneventful since Christmas. We had a pretty cold January and early February so I didn’t really go anywhere except to pick up groceries and house supplies for the last two months. We had our traditional mid winter thaw the last week or so. So I’ve been spending some time outside watching the squirrels and birds. I see the cranes and Canadian geese are starting to migrate back. They are usually quite thick near my town from the last week in February until middle March. I’m going to take a few hours sometime next week and just watch the birds along the Platte River just outside my town like I do every March.

I traditionally love to travel and see new places. But I haven’t been outside of Nebraska since my friend Matt’s wedding almost two years ago. And I can tell that the lack of travel and new experiences are making me stale and itchy. Believe it or not, I really don’t like the sedentary lifestyle. When I still held traditional jobs, I usually did my best at jobs where I was moving a lot and it didn’t matter if I got sweaty or dirty. I admit that since I had the sedentary lifestyle forced on me, first by my car accident and then spending a summer with a messed up back, I have gotten lazy. And by getting lazy I can tell I have lost much of my stamina and enjoyment of just doing simple things like walking around the park or going to the all night deli to pick up some Chinese food. I have recently started going back to the all night deli more often, especially if I’m going to be up late.

I am still not as active as I would like to be, but I can tell that it is beginning to come back. I am traditionally not very active during winters, at least not physically. I usually read a lot and have traditionally done some of my best writing work during the winter. Most of the books I read this winter were about future technology trends and popular science. I also listen to a lot of audiobooks and current events type lectures on youtube. I tend to utilize youtube and my books more in winter than the spring or fall. Traditionally during the summers I do most of my errands in the morning than spend the hottest parts of the afternoon reading and writing. But I still do the bulk of my brain work during the winter.

I can tell that the lack of physical activity and travel is making me easily bored. It is also tough in that I haven’t seen my close friends or family at all since Christmas. I fear that I’m losing my social skills. I don’t socialize much with my neighbors in my complex as I have little in common with them. Most of my neighbors are senior citizens or people with physical disabilities that can’t do much of anything. I don’t know many people in here with mental health issues who are still in reasonably good physical health. It is kind of lonely in here as far as socializing goes. I can also tell that the lack of socializing and physical activity has taken a toll on my physical health. I just hope that once spring sets in a few weeks from now, I’ll be able to get more active again.

Weather has been nicer the last few days so I’ve been getting out a little more. Got restocked in time for the next round of snow to come through. I’ve been kind of lazy about writing more recently. But that’s really because I haven’t had much to report. I’ve been quite stable for a long time now. This is the longest unbroken period of stability I’ve had in almost two years. My mental health loves it but my writing routine is suffering because of the stability.

I’ve been eating less the last few weeks than usual. But that is by design. Even though I’m still not exercising very much, I am noticing small differences from the last few weeks. I make it a point to leave my apartment and drive my car a little each day. I used to go two to three days in a row without driving, especially early in the winter when it was so cold.

About the only real complaint I have is I sleep more than I would like. I usually stay up quite late and then sleep most of the morning. Some days I even sleep past noon. Needless to say this messes with my routines and my socializing. Since it still gets dark early I usually don’t get much sunlight. Sure I can read and get a lot done in the overnight hours, but I don’t get to socialize much because of my odd sleep patterns. I still get enough sleep and I keep mentally stable. It’s too bad I have no one to share this stability with outside of the internet.